Part 2: Elven Awakenings
You awakened the day after the fight with the strange creature in the forest in the amphitheatre with the rest of your party around you. The creature's body laid to the side.
Your skin itched. Looking down you saw the purple glowing shards embedded in your skin. They didn't hurt, they were just irritating. Sometimes they seemed to catch the light and reflect in your eyes… or did they just glow? It's hard to be sure.
Fairweather was two days trek to the north and you knew the way back to the northward path through the swamp. Ian the Fishmonger was already awake and packed. He looked eager to leave. To be away from the now harmless looking pool of water that sits in the centre of this clearing. The one that changed colour from dark to clear and seemed to be powering the staff of the lizard creature.
You collected the supplies that you found in the creatures cave. Food for two days. Waterskins to last a day. Coupled with your own full waterskins it would be enough to get you to Fairweather. You also found a full faced ornate helmet, a wooden staff, a small vial that glows green and a dagger with an ornate wooden handle.
The party headed off back into the swamp and up the narrow path north for few hours. Up ahead they saw something blocking the way in the gloom: a branch of a tree, rotting on the path.
Everyone was super suspicious about the log.
Fillop fliped dramatically over a the log. Landed safe. Hides.
Osthar leaped over and then there was a crack from above. A branch fell and landed on his head.
Mei Mei realised what is going on: Widow makers! She uses Thurmaturgy to create a loud yell. Cracks are heard from the trees above as the rotting wood is vibrated and loose branches fall from above. The way is clear and safe.
The party travels for the rest of the day until the sun begins to set.
During the night they hear strange buzzing sounds overhead. Other than that the night goes without incident.
The next day they set off. The party talked to Ian who was looking more and more despondent. He was obviously quite depressed. They talked to him, gave him a pep talk, talked him around. He starts feeling much better... and then a huge mosquito-bird like creature pierced him through the chest. A fluttering could be heard from the tree above them and a flock of black creatures descended upon the party.
The party are attacked by a group of blood sucking stirges. They fight is bloody but they manage to defeat them.
They continued trekking through the swamp for a few more hours.
The ground began to get harder beneath their feet and the insects started to lessen their fury. The pools of mud and water dried up and the trees seemed to change from the dark wooded trees of swamp to the green leafed brown leaves of a forest.
The trail continued north for a while and they started to notice a massive dark silhouette of some type of building forming through the trees. The party also heard what sounded like movement coming from it.
Before them was an old watch tower made of white stone but in an extremely elegant architecture that they had never seen before. The buildings top had crumbled and parts of it lied strewn around the base of the building. There was no sign on a door or entrance to the tower. Amongst the ruins at the base of the tower a bivouac of tall creatures with piggish faces, prominent teeth and green skin sat. They counted five creatures around a smouldering fire. They seemed relaxed and were dressed in hides with clubs relaxed at their sides. You noted a quiver of arrows sitting by a crumbled stone...
The party fought the creatures while Ian cowered in terror. They were victorious!
Afterwards, Osthar approached a knocked over statue of a creature they had never seen before. It looked kind of human but smaller, with pointy ears and almond shaped eyes. Upon approaching it the purple crystals in his face flared with light. He touched it and the landscape shifts and the tower now appears whole, the ruins around it gone. And with that he could see a door into the tower. As the other characters approached and touched the statue they see the same.
The door creeped open they saw a white chamber made of the same white stone. Not a seam or join in the walls could be seen, as if it was created by magic. In the middle of the chamber was a number of crystal shaped six foot long boxes on pedistools. A set of stairs with a beautiful ornate wooden rail spiraled up the wall of the room and up to the next floor...
There were 50 sarcophagi on the bottom floor. All seemed to have bodies in them that were perfectly preserved and sleeping. Flowing writing was written across the crystal glass of the crystal.
On the middle floor there were 30 more of the crystal sarcophagi and the staircase continued upwards. In the middle of them was a purple glowing orb which made the crystals in the characters blaze with light as they approached it. When Bane touched the orb purple light flooded the room and blinded them, the crystal sarcophagi cracked slowly, and then shattered. The bodies laid still for a moment and then began to gasp. Their eyes opened and they awakened slowly.
The creatures awakened and were mostly confused. One of them eventually acted as the leader. A woman called Ashar. She didn't understand the characters. Eventually she casted a spell that seems to help.
They were Elves - the party have never heard of such a thing
They went to sleep to avoid destruction brought on by uncontrollable magic unleashed by the King Araric and Shandar, the Arch Wizard, when he was trying to ascend the King of the Elves to be a God.
The Elven ArchPriest Taras had cast a spell to keep them contained and asleep. They are the last of their kind. They were the youngest. They saved their children. The Archpriest is on the top floor (He isn’t. He died when the tower collapsed.) Their city was to the south of here. Amongst the giant trees of the Avondale forest. This tower was on the northern border of the forest of great trees.
The King of the Elves, Araric, believed in his magic and splendor, that he derived from the great beauty of the forest, had suprassed that of his God, Correllon. As such he felt it was time for him to become a god as well. The Archpriest Taras told him he was wrong and he was imprisoned. The king called on his ArchWizard Shandar to assist him. They worked together tirelessly on the project until one day they declared they were ready. They begun casting the spell but when they did corruption ran forth from the great tree that they were casting though and it sent Araric mad. They had reached out to the Gods realms and found something else. Something evil.
Araric and Shandar began using his magic on his people. Corrupted as it was they went mad and turned on one another. During the chaos Taras managed to escape with the help of some of his students and he gathered them around him and took them to a tower on the outpost of the city. Here he prayed to Correllon who imprisoned them in the sarcophagi, safe from Araric but also stuck forever. Until the party released them.
The party are in awe as they watch the elves begin to bring the forest back to life. Touching plants and enticing them to grow much bigger and stronger than they had been. Creating fruit from trees and offering food to the party. They are jubilant to be alive and sad to have witnessed the death of the elves. But they are also steadfast, and plan to bring back their people from the brink of destruction.
After spending a time with the elves the party are finally sent on their way north, though some of them more reluctantly than others.
As a parting gift they are given a parcel of food each. And four green draughts in small bottles. These act as potions of healing with two doses. They are also handed 4 rings. Each of them with a different appearance and each of them with a different function.
- A wooden ring with snow foxes carved on top: Ring of Warmth - Filop - A silver ring with the top shaped like a shield: Ring of Protection - Bane - A silver inlaid ring with lapis: Ring of Swimming - Osthar - A jet black stone ring: Ring of Necrotic Resistance - Mei Mei
